The Nanogirl News~

From: Gina Miller (nanogirl@halcyon.com)
Date: Fri Jun 20 2003 - 20:47:09 MDT

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    The Nanogirl News
    June 20, 2003

    Gear change for miniature machines. Wear-free cogs build themselves while
    floating on liquid.US scientists have made cogs and gears that assemble
    themselves, experience little wear, and perform gyrations quite beyond
    conventional interlocking tooth systems. Instead of rotating on fixed
    spindles, sets of the gears can continue to drive one another while
    traversing freely along a meandering path. And some of the gear wheels have
    no fixed teeth at all - rather, their teeth are made from liquid. In
    principle, one gear of this kind could drive another turning at quite a
    different speed. (Nature science Update 6/16/03)
    http://www.nature.com/nsu/030609/030609-17.html

    Incredibly Tough Nanotube Fibers. Spinning method turns out fibers with
    unparalleled properties. With a little chemistry know-how, Spiderman made
    silk strong enough to use for swinging from building to building and tying
    up bad guys. But the comic book wall crawler might have been an even better
    match for New York's criminals had he been armed with the supertough carbon
    fibers prepared recently at the University of Texas, Dallas (UTD).
    Researchers there have developed a procedure for spinning composite carbon
    nanotube fibers that are tougher than spider silk and any other natural or
    synthetic organic fiber reported so far [Nature, 423, 703 (2003)]. The new
    fibers are being used to make supercapacitors and to weave textiles. (C&E
    6/16/03)
    http://pubs.acs.org/cen/topstory/8124/8124notw8.html

    Electron Nanodiffraction Technique Offers Atomic Resolution Imaging. A new
    imaging technique that uses electron diffraction waves to improve both image
    resolution and sensitivity to small structures has been developed by
    scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (Space Daily
    6/4/03)
    http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nanotech-03zf.html

    Making nanodots useful for chemistry. Nanosized clusters of germanium that
    can be reacted chemically to make useful materials, such as plastics, have
    been made by chemists at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and UC
    Davis...Robin Tanke, an assistant professor of chemistry at UWSP, worked
    with UC Davis chemistry professors Susan Kauzlarich and Tim Patten to put
    useful coatings on germanium nanoclusters. Kauzlarich's laboratory has
    developed methods for making germanium and silicon nanoclusters, while
    Patten's research focuses on attaching polymer coatings to different kinds
    of nanoparticles. (EurekAlert 6/18/03)
    http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-06/uoc--mnu061803.php

    Nanotechnology Commission Wants Your Help in Assessing Benefits and Risks. A
    UK commission will assess the potential benefits and risks of nanotechnology
    and nanoscience, as well as make recommendations as to how the emerging
    fields should be regulated..."A key role of the project will be to separate
    the hype and hypothetical from the reality," says the chair of the study,
    professor Ann Dowling. Dowling is calling on stakeholders from academia,
    industry, lobby groups and the general public to contact the commission to
    express their views and worries. (Betterhumans 6/13/03)
    http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-06-13-1

    Imaging Lithium Atoms. One Angstrom Microscope's observations of the
    smallest, lightest metal atoms are a first for electron microscopy. For the
    first time researchers have used a transmission electron microscope -- the
    One Angstrom Microscope (OÅM) at the Department of Energy's National Center
    for Electron Microscopy (NCEM) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory --
    to image lithium atoms. Only atoms of hydrogen and helium are smaller and
    lighter than those of lithium, which under ordinary conditions is not a gas
    but a soft, white metal. (Berkeley Lab 6/13/03)
    http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/MSD-1-Ang-microscope.html

    Nano-nose sniffs out smallest particles. Researchers at the Oak Ridge
    National Laboratory in Tennessee have claimed a new world record for
    weighing tiny amounts of stuff. At the U.S. Department of Energy lab, they
    were able to measure variations in the resonant frequency of tiny
    gold-coated silicon bars just two microns long and fifty nanometers thick by
    vibrating them with the heat of a solid-state laser at a speed of about two
    million times a second. (CNet 6/12/03)
    http://news.com.com/2100-1008_3-1016653.html

    Holey Fullerene Opens Wide for H2. Open-cage derivative is first to provide
    H2-encapsulated complex in 100% yield. Japanese chemists for the first time
    have prepared an open-cage fullerene derivative with an orifice large enough
    to allow a hydrogen molecule to be inserted into the cage in 100% yield [J.
    Am. Chem. Soc., 125, 7152 (2003)]. "I think it is an important advance for
    this field, since I can see this type of system being used for H2 storage
    once C60 becomes cheaper," comments Yves Rubin, a chemistry professor at the
    University of California, Los Angeles. Scientists are looking for efficient
    methods for stuffing fullerene cages with metal atoms or gases to make new
    types of functional materials. (C&E 6/16/03)
    http://pubs.acs.org/cen/topstory/8124/8124notw1.html

    The government (UK) today launched an independent study into the benefits
    and risks of nanotechnology, the science of manipulating ultra-small
    particles. The Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering have been
    commissioned to look at this emerging area of science, engineering and
    technology to see how it should be regulated as it develops.
    (The Guardian 6/11/03)
    http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/research/story/0,9865,975190,00.html

    Molecular Switches May Not Be Switching After All. Phenylene-ethynylene
    oligomers are molecules that have interested molecular electronics
    researchers because they conduct electricity and appear to turn to turn
    their conductivity on and off in observations with a scanning tunneling
    microscope probe. Because of this, scientists have thought the molecules
    could be used as molecular switches. In order for this to happen, the
    molecules' intermittent conductivity had to be attributed to some internal
    property of the molecules that could be controlled. Research done by
    Scientists from Arizona State University and Motorola Labs suggests this
    isn't the case. Physicists Ganesh K. Ramachandran, and Stuart M. Lindsay and
    chemist Alex Primak from Arizona Stateand Theresa J. Hopson, Adam M. Rawlett
    and Larry A. Nagahara from Motorola Labs report in the May 30 issue of
    Science that the molecules' apparent "switching" behavior is more likely the
    result of an unexpectedly weak bond with the layer of current-conducting
    gold molecules on which they are arranged. When the bond is broken, the
    molecules lose contact with the gold surface, and the electrical connection
    is turned off. (Nanotech Planet 5/30/93)
    http://www.nanoelectronicsplanet.com/nanochannels/research/article/0,4028,10
    497_2214611,00.html

    Nano expert and D.C. insider will lobby White House and public. It wasn't a
    headline that the scientist liked much: "Clayton Teague Thinks Small,"
    blared the Georgia Tech University student newspaper. That was 1968, and
    Teague was a graduate student at the time. Now, he's the first full-time
    director of the federal National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO),
    and he's thinking even more infinitesimally. Teague has spent his career
    helping the federal government explore the world at the nanoscale. The
    visible contours of that world have grown during Teague's more than 30 years
    of federal service, thanks in part to his work...During an interview at his
    National Science Foundation office in Arlington, Va., he championed
    nanotechnology as a great potential economic and social balm for the nation,
    and he pledged to use his office to help knit together the many scientific
    and research threads comprising nanotechnology today, from simulation and
    modeling to biotechnology to materials science. (SmallTimes 6/20/03)
    http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=6249

    (Event) UC Riverside Hosts Frontiers in Nanotechnology and Engineering
    Programs. Summer Program Designed for Students and Teachers, Grades 8-12.
    Twenty teachers and 50 students will meet at the University of California,
    Riverside to explore the big ideas behind the smallest things at the
    "Frontiers in Nanotechnology and Engineering" program, scheduled June 23
    though July 4. Nanotechnology, an emerging field representing the future
    frontier in miniaturization, is likely to have a profound effect on numerous
    areas such as manufacturing processes, medical devices and delivery of
    medications, and space exploration. (UCR 6/10/03)
    http://www.newsroom.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=613

    Nanotech breakthrough jogs memory. The first 10GB nanotechnology memory
    (NRAM) device has been built in the laboratories of Nantero, the Boston,
    Massachusetts company has said. Using carbon nanotubes a billionth of a
    meter in diameter sprinkled onto a silicon wafer, the device has been made
    using mostly standard chip production techniques. The company claims that
    the technology can combine the speed and price of dynamic memory with the
    non-volatility of flash, making it a strong candidate for the eagerly
    awaited universal memory devices that the industry hopes will replace all
    other types. (ZDnet 6/13/03) http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103_2-1016942.html

    (Book) Is the end nigh? Sir Martin Rees, Britain's most distinguished
    theoretical astrophysicist and one of its best writers on matters
    cosmological, is no stranger to catastrophe; he has a professional interest
    in supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, cannibal galaxies and many of the
    universe's other savageries. In Our Final Century, though, his concern is
    not just destruction, but self-destruction. The 20th century, he points out,
    was the first in which humanity's chance of self-destruction shot up above
    the eschatological background noise...But the heart of his argument is the
    risk of intentional destruction. Like Bill Joy, chief scientist of Sun
    Microsystems, who wrote an influential article on the matter in Wired a few
    years ago, Rees fears that biotechnology and nanotechnology will provide
    greater potential for destruction, and permit ever smaller groups - or
    indeed individuals - to make use of them. (The Guardian 6/14/03)
    http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,975702,00.html

    Quantum Dot Advances. Studies show that nanoparticles have potential
    biological applications.
    The semiconductor nanoparticles known as quantum dots have moved closer to
    biological applications, according to two recent reports. In one paper,
    scientists at Cornell University, collaborating with Quantum Dot Corp. in
    Hayward, Calif., use quantum dots as a label for multiphoton imaging in live
    animals. In the other report, Japanese researchers use chaperone proteins to
    encapsulate and protect quantum dots, preventing them from aggregating and
    losing their size-dependent properties. (C&E 6/19/03)
    http://pubs.acs.org/cen/topstory/8123/8123notw6.html

    Hydrogen goes universal. Two researchers from the US and Germany have
    calculated a 'universal alignment' effect for the electronic energy levels
    in hydrogen. This effect could allow scientists to predict how hydrogen
    behaves in materials used for applications as diverse as integrated
    circuits, fuel cells and hydrogen storage materials (C G Van de Walle and J
    Neugebauer 2003 Nature 423 626). (PhysicsWeb 6/4/03)
    http://physicsweb.org/article/news/7/6/3

    Nanotechnology: the next small thing. Investors are piling into a
    revolutionary new sector, but skeptics say it's just another bubble in the
    making. Richard Fletcher and Lauren Mills report. It's the stuff of science
    fiction: nanotechnology, a scientific breakthrough which its proponents
    claim will create computers the size of a grain of sand and miniature robots
    that will march through the body repairing damaged organs. Nanotechnology is
    no Hollywood fiction. According to a report to be published this week by Lux
    Capital, the US venture capital firm, worldwide governments and venture
    capitalists invested more than $3bn in the fledgling sector in 2002. And the
    investors hope to grab a fat slice of a market which the US government
    confidently claims will be worth $1 trillion by 2012. (Telegraph.co.uk
    6/15/03)
    http://money.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=P8&targetRu
    le=5&xml=%2Fglobal%2F2003%2F06%2F15%2Ffiano15.xml

    Tetrapod nanocrystals could improve solar cells. A new shape for
    semiconductor nanocrystals-tetrapods, rather than simple spheres, rods and
    disks-could double the efficiency of "plastic" solar cells, according to the
    inventor of tetrapods. Paul Alivisatos, the inventor of semiconductor
    tetrapods and a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, said
    they promise to convert twice as much incident light into electricity.
    Tetrapods also promise to improve chemical sensors, biomedicine and
    optoelectronic devices, as well as serving as strengthening additives to
    plastic composites. (EETimes 6/9/03)
    http://www.eet.com/at/n/news/OEG20030609S0065

    Single-electron transistors shed heat. Characterizing the electron flow and
    the resulting causes of heat dissipation in low-dimensional nanoscale
    electronics could lead to cool-running single-electron "quantum dot"
    transistors, according to a researcher here at the University of
    Wisconsin-Madison. Better understanding of heat dissipation in semiconductor
    materials should enable chip makers to cool down even massive
    heat-generating chips like central processing units (CPUs). "So much heat is
    being dissipated by CPUs today that may people's laptops get uncomfortably
    warm. Our technique for studying low-dimensional electron systems should
    help future chips avoid generating so much heat," said Robert Blick,
    electrical and computer engineering associate professor. He collaborated on
    the work with his graduate student, Eva Höhberger, as well as with professor
    Werner Wegscheider at the University of Regensburg, Germany, and researcher
    Tomas Krämer of Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. (EETimes 6/2/03)
    http://www.eet.com/at/n/news/OEG20030602S0105

    Rage Against the (Green) Machine. First came the concerns about nuclear
    power. Then, the fears about genetically modified foods. Now, European and C
    anadian environmentalists have a new, lab-made monstrosity to rail against:
    nanotechnology. Last week, at the Brussels headquarters of the European
    Parliament, Greenpeace, GeneWatch U.K., the ETC Group and others held a
    teach-in, of sorts. The goal was to highlight the potential dangers that
    could arise when scientists start manipulating matter at the nano --
    billionth of a meter -- level. Nano-sized bits are so small that they can
    penetrate your skin, get into your lungs, and travel through your body
    unmolested by the immune system, argues ETC program manager Jim Thomas.
    Research, he claims, shows that matter gets more toxic when it's shrunk to
    the super-small -- no matter what the material is. -What?- (Wired 6/19/03)
    http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,59287,00.html

    'Nano' Suddenly a Gigantic Label. Nanotechnology has become one of the
    hottest areas in scientific research, pulling in billions of dollars in
    government, corporate and foundation cash. But the scientist who coined the
    term "nanotechnology" says a lot of what passes for nano is just plain ol'
    science, gussied up with a fancy name to rake in the bucks.
    "'Nanotechnology'" has now become little more than a marketing term," said
    Eric Drexler, founder of the Foresight Institute, the leading nanotech think
    tank. "Work that scientists have been doing for decades is now being
    relabeled nanotechnology." (Wired 6/16/03)
    http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,59181,00.html

    Gina "Nanogirl" Miller
    Nanotechnology Industries
    http://www.nanoindustries.com
    Personal: http://www.nanogirl.com
    Foresight Senior Associate http://www.foresight.org
    Extropy member http://www.extropy.org
    nanogirl@halcyon.com
    "Nanotechnology: Solutions for the future."



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